JANUARY 10, 2002

Buffy saw the bespectacled young man tinkering with the geek-kings invisibility ray. Perhaps finding these fools plus Willow's relative recovery had her calmed down, because she asked questions first.

"Who the hell are you, and what are you doing in my house?"

From the kitchen emerged Xander and Willow, who would, Buffy had contemplated, probably still hang out together even if the two mutated into giant Japanese monsters.

"Oh, hey, Buff. Sooory about the not-filling-in-at-all thing."

Xander nodded, a break from wedding plans obviously doing him good.

"Yeah, but Dex here has a limited timetable. He and Billy Gates have a luncheon, right, pal?"

The man looked up.

"Please, Xander. Gates is more leveraged than Enron. I just hope I'm there when he gets the cell-phone call. I have a Swiss account waiting to take all his stuff---at cost."

Buffy raised a hand.

"Ummm--intros all around?"

Willow pointed with some pride at the man.

"Buffy--this is Silicon Valley TNG--Dex Kendall of Kendallisms, Inc. We know him from before Books, Barbie or Batman."

The name could not escape a Buffy weary of comebacks.

"Dex--Kendall? Any relation to----"

Dex snorted, a bit geekily, but not quite.

"Don't I wish not. Ole Blank-Eyes, as I still prefer to call her, is my
older sister."

Buffy was surprised, to put it mildly.

"Harmony has a super-mega-techie for a brother?"

Xander continued.

"Dex here was taken away from the Kendalls when he was about nine. They were tragically unfit, using my own folks as a standard. And yeah—he knows about Harmony."

Dex kept to his work as he responded.

"Which is why my HQ has precisely calibrated sun-lamps dotting almost every square foot."

Buffy watched his almost effortless work.

"That much bad--er--ya know?"

He smiled.

"As X and W here can tell you, I was a geek's geek's geek. I made Jonathan and his pals seem cool. Heh. I even affected an accent, to make people think I was adopted. But part of it wasn't me. Harmony would run wild, my folks would never stop her, and any effort I made to get back was thwarted before I got to it. In the beginning, I had it coming. She was a free spirit, and I was uptight. But--wellll, I presume you've watched the later cartoons of Tom and Jerry."

Buffy winced.

"Ouch. But you seem to have gotten past it all. A company. Respect."

He finished his work. He looked at Xander.

"You didn't tell her?"

Willow answered.

"My call, Dex. I don't think Buffy is prepared for the deep-down extent of Harmony's evil."

Xander pointed at the TV.

"See, Dex nicknamed his sister for her average grade in school. Later, he sold his story to Turner Broadcasting, which optioned it...welll, let's just say you've heard of it."

Buffy grabbed at her own heart.

"You mean, Harmony is......."

Dex stood, held his finger above the invisibility ray, and imitated the sisterly voice that had been the biggest part of his childhood hell.

"Ooooh.....what does *this* button do?"